Unfinished art journal pages.

These have been waiting for a long time to get finished.
But unfortunately they are still unfinished.
That is life.

The next 5 years.

Election day today ... walking to the voting station ...

Will these two vote too?

At the voting station only two parties are "campaigning" outside - the ruling party and the official opposition. I was hoping for more diverse activity outside the station - there are after all some 33 parties on the ballot paper.

The queue move fast - everything well organized.

Almost inside now.

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And soon we will know what will happen and not happen during the next 5 years ...

Sunset.

Taken from our garden - a few days ago.

Travail book.

I made the Travail artist's book (using the profiteri etchings I had printed earlier) for the exhibition, but forgot to post about it.

tra·vail  

(trə-vāl′, trăv′āl′)n.

1. Work, especially when

arduous or involving painful

effort; toil.

2. Tribulation or agony; anguish.

intr.v. tra·vailed, 

tra·vail·ing, tra·vails

1. To work strenuously;

toil.

Quick Drawings.

Our local trains are quite different from ones abroad, I guess. For one thing, we have entertainers on board who do all kinds of stuff, from singing a capella, to making farmyard noises (yes, really), to preaching fire and brimstone. These are usually accompanied by a tin going around for collections.  It can be very interesting, although I have been told that if you take the train regularly, it all becomes a bit much! For another thing, we have hawkers on some trains - selling potato chips, toffees, cold drinks (which they carry around in buckets of ice), second-hand books, plastic toys and so forth. It provides people with a much-needed income.
So on my train trip some weeks ago, I bought this plastic toy - you draw on it with a magnetized pen, and then you can clear the drawing by sweeping the lever across. It has been quite useful for me to practice quick drawings, mostly while watching DVDs ...

More salad, please.

Time for a few salads, I think. I  try to eat one large salad a day, and to feed my habit, have started planting my own lettuce, with varying degrees of success. The current batch is doing well, and has already provided me with the basis of a few lunches.
Salad leaves, just picked ...

Salad leaves with roast butternut, feta, radish, apple, cucumber, croutons, slivered almonds and linseeds.

Have I posted this one before? Can't remember ... Salad leaves with pear slices, cucumber, croutons and grated parmesan cheese.

 

Now go forth and eat ye some salads ...

Infection.

Last Saturday I visited  Infecting the City with two friends. To add to the fun we went by train. I last took this suburban train 27 years ago -  can you believe it? Contrary to expectations (and fears, since one always hears the bad stories about people getting mugged or thrown off the train) it was very pleasant. The carriage was quite clean and there were more than enough fellow passengers (this depends on the time of day, I am sure)  to feel safe but not crowded. It was great not to have to sit in the car hunched over the steering wheel for 50 minutes, teeth clenched and nerves shot, wasting petrol, and then struggling to find parking. So all in all a good experience.(But jeez, Metrorail, do something about the CT station toilets! They are quite, quite horrible - talk about infecting the city ...)

Some photos of the events we saw:

On the train, passing Fish Hoek.

Puppets on Thibault Square.

More puppets and Archbishop Tutu..

The band.

Swopping roles.

A man with a mission. 

Spectator & parrot. 

Pas de deux. 

Hola!

Daniel - a railways employee with baggage trolley at the station. He asked me to please publish his name in the newspaper. He seemed sad when I said that I was not a journalist, so I explained that I would publish the photo on the internet, at which he cheered up considerably. He gave only his first name. So Daniel, this one is especially for you.

3600 - an art installation about the extent of rape in this country.

Walking the Rose Path

Angels at Golden Acre Centre, waiting for the clock to strike 12.

In the Slave Church in Long Street - Antjie in Berlin - a performance work with piano, electronic sounds, and the recorded voice of Antjie Krog reading some of the material from her book Begging to be Black.

Young dancers performing on Church Square.